Never liked the snow and now will be going to Tahoe this weekend in our '10 LR4...

Supposed to be snowing pretty good this weekend. Tires are Pirelli Scorpions.

Should I be looking for chains or cables?

Thanks,

Mike

 

You may want to carry some sort of cable or chain, even if you dont plan on using it. When the weather gets bad enough up there they start patroling the roads enforcing the mandatory chain rule. The only way to get a free pass if that rule is in effect is to have dedicated winter tires on your vehicle, which the scorpions are not.

As far as tips for winter driving, that is fairly straight forward in concept, but difficult in practice. You have only three forms of input into your vehicle. You can accelerate, you can brake and you can turn your steering wheel. When the roads get icy, the thing to remember is that you can only do one of those at a time. Try to stop AND turn, or accelerate AND turn and you will likely be one of the many people on the ditch who just dont understand the concept.

One last thing is remember that slush and high speed are enemies. Slush accumulates in the space between lanes. You could be moving along fine on your lane and put your LR4 into a spin just by changing lanes because of the front tires hitting the slush between lanes at high speed. Try not to change lanes if you can avoid it and be ever so gentle if you must change lanes. Oh, and make sure your tires are inflated to factory specs. Riding on underiinflated tires is the fastest way to loose control of the vehicle in the ice/slush.

Those are good basics to keep you safe during bad winter driving.

 

Testing out the limits in an empty parking lot always worked for me as well. Granted you're not driving on hills or with other vehicles in tow but you'll get a good idea what your vehicle can or cannot do and how your tires will handle the weather. Just don't panic or let anxiety creep in - you'll be fine. Take it slow.

 

No you do not need chains. They'd be a waste of money if you only drive that occasionally. The roads up there are plowed well and sanded/salted, and you have all wheel drive. Just drive slow.

I would never put chains on an LR4. Studded snow tires would be worthwhile if you drove on snow all season long, but for a weekend trip to the mountains, and not remote ones but the kind that are swarming with Prius year-round, just slow down.

If you're worried about the checkpoint nailing you for the Scorpions, just carry the cheapest set of snowchains you can find, whether they fit or not, and drive slow.